We are opening a self serve frozen yogurt shop in California and are in the process of comparing machines. We expect a high volume store in an indoor shopping mall. Our concern is what to buy for our major equipment - soft serve machines. Plus, we would prefer used 2-3 years max, or refurbished.

1) Does anyone have experience with these machines? We want something that has as little maintenance as possible, but with a good maintenance track record. Any recommendations?

2) We would like to keep it inexpensive (electricity).

3) We have to consider air or water cooled. Water is likely a VERY expensive option because of working in a mall environment - and the engineering requirements for a glycol system.

We have spoken to Taylor, Electro-Freeze & Stoelting sales people. I don't trust sales people, but they have given us some good information. We are also considering Wellspring and Alpine as foreign alternatives. We do not want Sani-Serve.

Can anyone give us an idea of what is a good quality machine for the price? Any thoughts would be appreciated!!!

Thank you
Kim Flaten &
Craig Petersman
Gilroy, CA

05-09-2012, 09:41 PM

adam_s05

Quote:

Originally Posted by cpetersman

We are opening a self serve frozen yogurt shop in California and are in the process of comparing machines. We expect a high volume store in an indoor shopping mall. Our concern is what to buy for our major equipment - soft serve machines. Plus, we would prefer used 2-3 years max, or refurbished.

1) Does anyone have experience with these machines? We want something that has as little maintenance as possible, but with a good maintenance track record. Any recommendations?

2) We would like to keep it inexpensive (electricity).

3) We have to consider air or water cooled. Water is likely a VERY expensive option because of working in a mall environment - and the engineering requirements for a glycol system.

We have spoken to Taylor, Electro-Freeze & Stoelting sales people. I don't trust sales people, but they have given us some good information. We are also considering Wellspring and Alpine as foreign alternatives. We do not want Sani-Serve.

Can anyone give us an idea of what is a good quality machine for the price? Any thoughts would be appreciated!!!

Thank you
Kim Flaten &
Craig Petersman
Gilroy, CA

I work on them relatively often and I would lean towards taylor or Electro freeze (although I am slightly biased as the company I work for is a EF dealer). Both reliable machines and the EF is much more basic, no control boards. whatever machine you get, remember, maintenance is extremely important on these machines.

05-09-2012, 11:02 PM

cpetersman

Thank you for your reply! iwe agree that maintenance is extremely important. We also like the "basic" idea. Which are easier to maintain (from an employee standpoint)? We have not received a quote from EF, but have quotes for Taylor 794 and 336 machines. Is there a good EF gravity machine for self serve?

Alternatively we have looked at Wellspring and Alpine360HP. These are foreign born and fairly new, so we know maintenance can be more difficult. But, have you had experience with these?

Thank you again for your help and reply. It is greatly appreciated.

Kim and Craig

05-10-2012, 03:38 PM

p1perbob

Self-serve soft-serve? Good luck with that.

Bob

05-10-2012, 04:12 PM

EFfactoryservice

My opinion is totally biased so I'll keep that to myself. We offer several options for gravity fed machines, but our most popular for self serve yogurt shops is the SL500. I would be more than happy to answer any of your questions. I am not a sales guy, I am a lonely service tech.

07-12-2012, 07:27 PM

Davidgtr17

Maintainance Guy

Hi I'm actually a Maintainance guy here in your area. I actually live in gilroy and maintain machines in Froyo Delite and Yoghart. Let me know if your interested or if you have any questions :) I'd be happy to help

01-08-2013, 02:21 PM

LoniP1975

I am looking for a maintenance guy in Gilroy CA to help with my Taylor 338 yogurt machine. Need to have someone clean out a few machines. Can anyone guide to me to someone who can help? Trying to find Davidgtr17 who posted in July 2012.

01-23-2013, 02:56 AM

AustinFroYo

Please help! The left hopper on my 2 flavor electrofreeze machine stopped working. The left side is working fine. On the right, it's freezing and dispensing correctly. however, the (top) hopper is not cooling. What could be wrong? How do I fix it? Thank you!